This invention is in the field of carrying cases such as attache cases, briefcases, shoulderbags, handbags, clutches and the like typically used by women. The invention is particularly concerned with the modern professional woman who needs to carry a full size attache case for papers associated with her work, and at other times needs to carry only a considerably smaller handbag or shoulderbag for personal items, and often needs to carry both.
The size, shape and weight dimensions of traditional attache cases seem to have evolved for use by businessmen who may be accustomed to carrying larger and heavier luggage, and who usually do not carry an additional handbag or shoulderbag. In recentyears, however, there has been a substantial increase in the proportion of women in professions where it is common or necessary to use an attache case or briefcase. For such women, traditional or standard cases are hardly ideal, for the reasons discussed above, and for the burden or nuisance of carrying a heavy attache case by hand in addition to carrying a handbag or shoulderbag, and lastly because standard attache cases certainly lack any feminine style.
It is an objective of this invention to provide a new attache case, handbag, shoulderbag and shoulder attache case combination that provides a professional woman with four items of luggage in a single attractive and compact but separable combination. An important consideration of this invention is the specific manner of carrying this business luggage by the professional woman. A shoulder strap for the handbag is popular, practical and stylish; a shoulder strap for an attache case is not often used with traditional attache cases, but would be quite practical for anyone with a heavily loaded case and particularly helpful for a woman not wishing to carry the case by its handles.
Merely adding a shoulder strap to an attache case, while being a simple addition, is not necessarily a simple solution if the business woman already has another shoulder strap of her shoulderbag. Using two separate straps is likely to become a nuisance, and the idea of using one strap attached to both the attache case and the shoulderbag is not feasible because the total weight and bulk would be clearly impractical. This approach to this problem has been to develop a new luggage construction that serves the multiple functions of a handbag, shoulderbag, attache case and shoulder attache case, and that has the desirable features of simplicity in manufacture and use, lightweight and high aesthetic appeal.
The new invention has succeeded in satisfying all these objectives as will be described in subsequent sections.